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Gimlet's Oriental Quest/plot
Chapter 1: Highland Interlude Cub is at Glencarglas for a shooting and fishing holiday but Gimlet and Copper are held up and delayed. He stays at the Fishers Arms Hotel and whiles the time fishing. One day, by the river, he sees an old man, Dr Lander, a fellow hotel resident, running desperately as if pursued. The old man stuffs something into the hole of a dead tree and runs on. Two strangers then appear, obviously the pursuers. The two men, Smith and Gray take up rooms at the hotel. Cub sees them watching Tony Lander, the son of Dr Lander. Suspecting trouble, Cub warns Tony about them. Chapter 2: Explanations Up in Tony's room, he tells Cub his father had told him they were in danger but didn't say why. Chapter 3: Cub Makes a Friend Sandy Macrae, a local poacher finds a body in a deep pool on the river. Macnaughton, the innkeeper and Peter Ross, the local constable, go to recover the body. Cub goes along to help. It's Dr Lander. Ross concludes it must be an accident. Cub tells Tony the news. Tony confirms that he and his father had been moving from place to place, and always his pursuers had found them. The doctor always carried something in his pocket but never told his son what it was but surmises it may have to do with Siam, where his father had spent a lot of time and where Tony had grown up. They agree to try to recover the item the next day. Chapter 4: The River Takes a Hand After breakfast, Cub and Tony go to retrieve his father's item but it had been raining and river is in flood. The tree is surrounded by water and soon breaks off and is swept downstream. Chapter 5: Watery Work Cub chases and catches up with the tree but can't extract the item as Smith and Gray are around, apparently searching the ground. Inconveniently, or perhaps because they were suspicious, the men want to stay with Cub and Tony but Cub wears out their patience by pretending to fish. The men finally leave and Cub is able to extract the item from the tree: it's a cigarette tin. Chapter 6: Strange Revelations The tin contains a map with strange symbols which don't mean much to Tony but Cub surmises that it might be useful for Smith and Gray to think they have got the chart, so he prepares a fake one, puts it into the cigarette tin and hides it under Dr Lander's bed. Tony gets a visitor: Mr. Hawkins from his father's solicitors. He brings a letter. It's from Tony's father, to be given to Tony in the event of his death. Dr Lander tells Tony in the letter that he had once treated and befriended Kashan Bhandu, a wealthy timber merchant from Thailand who had amassed a fortune in precious art pieces. But in so doing, Dr Lander had also antagonised one Tuanik, a quack doctor who also had his eye on Kashan's art treasures. During the Second World War, Tuanik had betrayed Kashan to the Japanese and had arrived with a group of soldiers to arrest the merchant. However, despite a thorough search of the house, the treasure was not found. Kashan was tortured but died without revealing where he had hidded the treasure. Before being arrested, Kashan had passed to Dr. Lander a chart showing the location where the treasure was buried. Also included on the chart was a will bequething the treasure to the doctor. Also sent separately to Dr Lander was a key to the chart. This he had memorised and then burnt. Dr Lander's letter to Tony now described the key to the chart and concludes but warning him about Tuanik and his accomplices Smith and Gray and a final advice to burn the letter. Chapter 7: Tuanik Shows His Hand Now Tuanik arrives, asking to see Tony. Cub advises Tony to play along and act friendly. Tuanik tries to persuade Tony to hand over a chart his father had because it is the property of the Thai government. Just at this moment, Ina, the waitress, turns up and says they were clearing Dr Lander's room and found a cigarette tin under the mattress! She hands it to Tony. During the night, Cub hears sounds from Tony's room. He finds Gray and Tuanik holding Tony prisoner. They seize the cigarette tin. Cub tries to confront them but Smith knocks him out from behind. The villains then leave the hotel, happy to have secured the treasure map. Chapter 8: Gimlet Takes Charge There's not enough evidence to go to the police about Dr Lander's murder. Freddie Ashton had made his yacht, Sally, available to Gimlet so he suggests that they all sail to Thailand and secure the treasure. They would bring along Gimlet's jeep for transport. Tony agrees. Arriving in Bangkok, Cub and Tony are spotted by Tuanik, Smith and Gray. Chapter 9: At the Little Lotus Flower Cub and Tony still have one trump card: Tuanik does not know Gimlet and Copper are with them. So Gimlet sends them on their own in his jeep to the Little Lotus Flower, an inn which Tony recommended as it is outside Bangkok and on the way to the village of Tankoy near where the treasure is. Gimlet and Copper would follow in a hired car after attending to official formalities. Cub and Tony arrive at the inn but soon some police (fake ones, as it turns out) arrive to arrest them. They are bundled into a black van and driven to an opium den where Tuanik, who by this time probably knew his chart is fake, plans to torture them for the real one. Chapter 10: Copper Takes a Turn Gimlet and Copper arrive at the inn and learn from the proprietor, Mr Loo, about the fate of Cub and Tony. They give chase. There is the inevitable mishap involving an elephant on the road, but they catch up with the black van and raid the opium den in time before the torturing can begin. Tuanik and his men block the exit, so our friends escape by jumping out of the window onto the deck of a junk which is on the river below. Chapter 11: A Night to Remember They have to move fast to stay ahead of Tuanik, so after a meal at the inn, they take the jeep and head for Tankoy. On the way they have an encounter with a python and a herd of wild elephants and the monsoon rain, as one might expect. Chapter 12: Sinister Developments Add a stampede of buffaloes to their tropical animal experiences as Gimlet and co. make their way through a native village to reach the ruins of a temple. There's a circular lake which matches the symbol on the chart. In the centre is a tomb. They cross over to examine the structure. But then Copper, on watch, has bad news: there's a crocodile in the lake which they had just waded across. Worse, he hears voices. Tuanik and his men are approaching and they have rifles! Chapter 13: When Thieves Fall Out Tuanik does not know where Gimlet is but wants to cross over to examine the tomb anyway. Smith steps into the lake to grab a log as a bridge. Too late, he realises it's the crocodile. Tuanik and Gray shoot at the crocodile but there's no use. Gray bitterly tells Tuanik they should have followed his advice: follow the wheel tracks to Gimlet's jeep and ambush them there. Tuanik agrees and they depart. Inside the tomb, Gimlet prises open the lid of a wooden coffin and finds it is filled with treasure. "Boys. This is it." Chapter 14: Tiger Fodder Tuanik and Gray had helpfully shot dead the crocodile which had killed Smith, so Gimlet and co. have no difficulty hauling the crate across. They have already met so many jungle creatures. What's left? You guessed it, a tiger. They meet a villager who was out stalking a tiger and buy over his buffalo which he had been using as a tiger bait. The chest is tied to the buffalo and taken towards the jeep. On the way, what else, the tiger attacks. The buffalo stampedes and the chest is smashed and they have to collect the precious art objects into a sack. There's still the matter of Tuanik's ambush which they overhead. But nearing the jeep, they see a scarecrow figure attacking and ultimately killing Tuanik and Gray and getting killed himself. Tony identifies him as Kling, one of Kashan's servants, probably exacting revenge for the death of his master. Gimlet and co. board the Sally and the party returns to Britain. The treasure is auctioned for a quarter of a million pounds. Gimlet, Cub and Copper refuse shares in the proceeds, only agreeing to take a small souvenir each from among the art objects and a payment proportionate to their services. Category:Plot summaries